Bangladesh has requested the World Customs Organisation (WCO) to allow its customs officials to work in the WCO headquarters to help them build capacity and deal with international economic challenges.
The Internal Resources Division (IRD) Secretary, Nojibur Rahman, also the National Board of Revenue chairman, made the request at a bilateral meeting with WCO Secretary General Kunio Mikuriya and Director (compliance and facilitation) Ghaozang Zhu at Brussels, Belgium.
The chairman also informed them about the reform and modernisation of NBR and about different international trade issues that the country has taken to enhance business and investment in the country.
During the meeting, the discussion also stressed technical support and training from WCO for Bangladeshi customs officials for their capacity development.
The NBR chairman was in Brussels from June 11 to 13 to attend the 125th/126th Annual Sessions of the World Customs Organization’s Council, the highest decision-making body of the organisation.
The customs chiefs from a total of 165 WCO member countries attended the council and discussed the international customs rules, formulation of policies and their implementation, according to a release from the NBR.
Nojibur attended the meeting as Bangladesh representative while Prakash Dewan, permanent representative of Bangladesh at WCO as the member delegate.
During his visit, the NBR chairman also held meeting with customs chiefs of Japan, Bhutan, Nepal and India.
Bangladesh had been signing different conventions and implementing decisions as WCO member since 1978.
During its council, WCO has put emphasis on digital customs, performance measurement, strategic planning, and coordinated border management (CBM), the WCO’s theme for 2015. Palestine was welcomed as the WCO’s newest and 180th member in this council.
During the council, Zouhair Chorfi of Morocco was re-elected as the chairperson of the council while Ana Hinojosa of the United States was elected as the director of Compliance and Facilitation.
Ernani Checcucci of Brazil was elected as the director of Capacity Building and Ping Liu of China of Tariff and Trade Affairs.